The Soldiers of Halla tpa-10 Page 2

  Soon after, I found myself on this barren territory, where Uncle Press and the other Travelers showed up. Dead friends were suddenly, well, not dead, and together we chose to make a final, desperate stand against Saint Dane.

  That’s when the gunships attacked, though we weren’t the target. Those odd helicopters were after the people who were hiding in that building. We got caught in the cross fire.

  Oh yeah, and Loor and I were nearly mauled by a polar bear.

  And Spader was hanging out with a penguin. So I guess it’s understandable when I say that I was a little shaken.

  “Pendragon, are we dead?” Loor asked, breaking the silence.

  Good question. It was definitely on my top ten list of explanations for what was happening. In fact, it was in the top two. The other was that it was all a dream. But dreams never lasted this long. Or made me cough. I really wanted a third good explanation, but I couldn’t come up with one.

  Spader had left his penguin pal and crossed through the dry moat to join us.

  “None of this makes sense,” he declared. “One minute Gunny and me were patching up a wonky boat on the river in Black Water, the next thing I know we’re wandering around here in… Where might we be, mates?”

  I glanced around at the squat, derelict buildings. I had absolutely no idea.

  “Better question,” I said. “Where is Uncle Press taking us?”

  “He’s taking you home,” came the answer from a soft voice behind us that I instantly recognized. I hadn’t heard that voice in years, but I knew it for sure. I looked at Loor. She gasped. Her eyes went wide. Loor never registered surprise, but at that moment, she was definitely surprised. She stared at me. It was as if she didn’t want to look and learn that it was a mistake.

  It wasn’t.

  “Hello, Daughter.”

  We all looked to see Osa, Loor’s mother, walking slowly toward us. The Batu warrior was as beautiful as the day I had last seen her-the day she died while protecting me from Bedoowan knights. She no longer seemed as tall, but that was because I had grown. Her dark skin was impossibly clean looking, in spite of the dirt and dust that swirled around us. She wore a long, red wrap that draped off one shoulder and stretched to the ground. She looked every bit as strong and graceful as I remembered her.

  “Mother?” was the only word Loor could get out. I’d never heard her so tentative.

  “I have missed you, my sweet girl.”

  Loor did something that was aggressively un-Loor like… and absolutely perfect. She dropped her wooden stave and ran to her mother. The two joined in an embrace that melted away years of sorrow. For that brief instant Loor became a little girl. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

  “I am so proud of you,” Osa whispered to her daughter.

  She looked up to us and added, “I am proud of you all.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I really didn’t know what to say. I didn’t feel like I deserved her praise, but more than that, my head was still trying to wrap itself around what was happening. Osa had died in a fury of arrows. I was there. There was no mistake. Yet there she was, as alive as we were. Assuming we were alive, that is.

  Loor pulled away from her mother, but still clung to her. “Help me understand,” she said through her tears.

  Osa gave her daughter a warm smile, which she then shared with Spader and me.

  “You are all going home,” she said. “That is where you will learn.”

  “Home?” Spader said, surprised. “Hobey, I don’t even know where home is anymore.”

  “Then it’s time I showed ya, spinney fish,” came a gravelly man’s voice I didn’t recognize.

  Spader did. He spun on his heel to see a man wearing an aquaneer uniform striding toward us.

  Spader stared at the guy and gasped, “It’s me dadl”

  “Who else would it be, now?” the man declared. He looked like Spader, only an older version with streaks of gray in his hair. He even had the same Aussie-sounding accent that Spader had. But Spader’s dad had been killed by the poisoned food supply on Cloral. Of course we all knew who was ultimately responsible for his death. Saint Dane. His father’s murder had sent Spader off the deep end. He became driven by the need for revenge. More than once he lost control of his own emotions and put us all in trouble as his anger outweighed his good sense. But that was in the past. Now his father was back. Somehow.

  “Let me have a look at ya!” the gregarious man bellowed, and wrapped his arm around Spader’s neck in a friendly bear hug. “You got bigger, you did, but still not big enough to take me on.”

  Spader clutched at his dad. He was overcome with emotion.

  “How?” was all he could get out.

  “How indeed, spinney fish. Let’s be off now,” he said, while leading Spader away.

  Spader pulled away from his father and looked back toward us.

  “But, Dad…” He let the word trail as he gestured to us.

  “No worries, mate,” Spader’s dad assured him. “You’ll see ‘em again, you will. Trust me on that.”

  Spader looked at me with confusion. As much as he wanted to be with his dad, he didn’t want to leave us.

  “It is all right,” Osa assured him. “You will all be together again.”

  Spader nodded, dazed. Just as quickly, the smile returned to his face, and he threw his arm around his father. The two strode away, arms around each other like old chums, laughing. They walked into the swirling dust and seemed to disappear. I mean that literally. I wasn’t sure if the dust swallowed them up, or they actually disappeared.

  “The same is happening with all the Travelers, Pendragon,” Osa said.

  I caught a glimpse of two men walking together on the far side of the moat. It was Gunny, along with another black guy who looked even older than he was. The man had a hand on Gunny’s shoulder in a fatherly way. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but Gunny was listening and nodding. A moment later they disappeared into the swirling dust.

  “Where are they going?” I asked.

  “I told you, they are going home,” Osa answered. “They all are.”

  “To their home territories?” I asked. “No,” she answered. “They are going home. You will be too.”

  With that, she led Loor off.

  “We cannot leave Pendragon,” Loor protested. “Our destiny is to be together.”

  “Indeed it is, and you shall be,” Osa assured her. “First you must learn.”

  Loor looked to me, waiting for my opinion.

  “Go,” I said. “I’ll be okay. I think.”

  “He will be,” Osa said. “You all will be.”

  Loor relaxed. She trusted her mother. After all, she was the Traveler from Zadaa before Loor. As Spader’s dad was the Traveler from Cloral before Spader. As Uncle Press was the Traveler from Second Earth before I was. If we couldn’t trust them, who could we trust? The weight of the world, no, the weight of Halla had been on our shoulders for a very long time. It was nice to know there was now someplace we could look for guidance. And help. And maybe even relief.

  Loor nodded in understanding and followed her mom. The two warriors walked away from me, looking more like each other than ever before. A moment later they were gone. Had they simply walked farther away? Or had they disappeared too? I didn’t know. I hoped that answer would come soon. I glanced around, wanting to see one of the other Travelers. There was no movement. No sound other than the hollow wind. I glanced over at the destroyed building. As much as I wanted to know what that was all about, I couldn’t bring myself to investigate. I figured I’d find out soon enough. I didn’t want to run into that angry polar bear again either.

  “Uncle Press?” I called out.

  No answer. Where was everyone? I feared that some of the others might have been hurt in the attack. “Elli? Kasha?” Still no answer.

  The penguin hadn’t moved from where he’d been standing next to Spader. What the heck was that about? Where was I?

  As if in answer to my though
ts, the wind picked up slightly, rustling my hair. Slowly the floating dust in the air began to clear. I could make out more shapes around me. I stood near the moat in the center of the circle of low, battered stone buildings. What was this place? Some kind of lonely outpost in the middle of nowhere? As the dust cleared, I was able to see beyond the buildings. There didn’t seem to be much out there other than open, arid land. It made me feel as if I were standing in an oasis. I remembered the tall building I’d caught brief glimpses of earlier, and hoped that the dust would clear enough for me to get a better view of it.

  I turned slowly, doing a one-eighty, looking off in the distance to see if I could spot the tilted building. Now that the air was clearing, I began to see that I wasn’t surrounded by open land after all. Far from it. I sensed massive shapes that stood between me and that mysterious, tilted building. There were other structures, larger than the ones near me, though they looked just as battered. It soon became clear that I was in a ruined city. It all felt vaguely familiar, yet not. Had I been here before? Was I on Earth? Rubic City? The city of Rune? None of the above?

  The dust cleared further. I expected to see a Lifelight pyramid, or perhaps the castle where Veego and LaBerge ran their violent games. I squinted, racking my brain, trying to understand why it all seemed so familiar.

  I’m not sure what made it all come together. Maybe it was something subliminal that I couldn’t consciously place. Maybe it was a smell, or the shadows made by the sunlight that tried to peek through the gray clouds. It could have been any of those things, but I’m thinking it was the penguin and the polar bear. The two oddest clues helped me realize the truth.

  I was indeed standing in an oasis. At least that’s what many people considered it to be. It was a magical place that existed in an amazing city. I had been here before. Many times.

  “We first brought you here the day before Shannon was born,” the familiar voice of a woman said. “Remember?”

  I froze. Was it possible? It was the last thing I expected. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was because it felt like too much to ask for. Maybe I had given up hope. Maybe I didn’t want to open myself up to the possibility, only to be disappointed and crushed. I felt something nudge the backs of my legs. I didn’t jump in surprise. I knew exactly what it was. I had felt it hundreds of times before, in another life. Memories like that become part of your being. Poking his head between my legs from behind, looking for attention, was my dog, Marley. His big, brown golden retriever nose pushed its way forward, followed by those big brown eyes. I could feel his whole body rock, as his tail wagged happily. I reached down and held his head with both my hands.

  “Hi, Marley-Mar,” I said through my tears. “Where’ve you been?”

  That’s when I knew where I was. The buildings. The polar bear. The penguin. I was standing next to the sea lion pool in the zoo that was on the edge of New York’s Central Park. At least, what was left of it. The huge, tilted building in the distance was now all too familiar. It was the Empire State Building. I was on Earth. What I still didn’t know was when I was. At that moment, I really didn’t care.

  “Did you have to grow up so fast?” the woman said.

  I had to hold myself back from breaking out in tears. Or bursting with joy. It’s a fine line. I turned around to see them. My family. Mom. Dad. My little sister, Shannon. Though she wasn’t so little anymore. How old was she now? Thirteen? She was now a young lady in jeans and a pink sweater. She looked perfect. They all did.

  We stood facing one another, nobody really sure of what to do. I was suddenly hit with a fearful thought. I had been down this road once before, and it didn’t have a happy ending.

  “Is this a Lifelight jump?” I asked.

  “A what!” Shannon asked with a wiseass look that can only come from a thirteen-year-old girl who has been working long and hard to perfect it.

  “No, Bobby,” my dad answered. “It’s us. For real.”

  I couldn’t move. It was too much for me to comprehend. I hadn’t seen my family since the day they’d left me at home to go to the basketball game at Stony Brook Junior High. They had disappeared. My life had disappeared. Finding them was one of the driving forces behind everything I had done as a Traveler. Maybe the only driving force. And now, they were standing in front of me.

  “So who won the game?” was the first question that came to mind.

  Shannon rolled her eyes. “You’re such a dork.” But she gave me a sly smile. I loved Shannon.

  “Stony Brook lost,” Dad said. “Bad. They needed you.” “And I needed you,” I replied.

  “I know,” Mom said, barely holding back her own tears. “That’s why we’re here.”

  That did it. I ran to them and threw my arms around my family. The moment I had longed for all those years had finally arrived. We were back together. The Pendragons were a family again. I don’t know how long we stayed hugging that way. It could have been a week for all I cared. I wasn’t going anywhere. I didn’t want to let go, for fear they’d disappear again.

  Dad put his hand behind my head and held my neck. His eyes were as red as mine were. “I’m proud of you, Son.”

  I nodded in thanks and burst out in tears. I couldn’t help myself. The floodgates of emotion and relief were open. Things were going to be okay. When I finally got my act together, I straightened up, wiped my eyes, and said, “So what the hell is up with Uncle Press? You gonna tell me what that guy’s about or what?”

  “We are,” Mom said with a chuckle. “You’re going to learn everything. But first we have to go home.”

  “To Stony Brook?” I asked hopefully.

  “No,” Mom answered. “We’re going to the place where you were born.”

  I let that sink in, then added, “Something tells me we’re not going to Second Earth.”

  “We’re not” was Mom’s simple, direct answer.

  It was the right answer. The only answer. Though it scared me to death. I was finally going to learn the truth.

  About me. About the Travelers. And maybe most important, about Saint Dane.

  “Then let’s go,” I said.

  Dad led the way. Mom kept her arm around my shoulders, Shannon’s arm was around my waist. Marley ran in front of us, his big bushy tail wagging.

  We took maybe two steps when I realized…

  We weren’t on Earth anymore.

  Chapter 3

  We had stepped out of one strange situation, directly into another.

  There were no flumes involved. No journey that I could tell of. I didn’t get the sense that we had traveled any distance at all. Except that one moment we were walking through the windswept ruins of the zoo in Central Park, and a second later we were in an environment I can best describe as being alien. Though I guess “alien” can mean a lot of things. I stood in wonder, looking around at the most barren, forlorn chunk of real estate I had ever seen.

  The air was clear. That’s the best thing I could say about the place. It was night, though there was plenty of light to see by. The sky was full of stars. More than I could imagine. I didn’t recognize a single constellation. The night sky was alive with thin, wispy clouds of all shapes and sizes that moved quickly overhead. At least, I thought they were clouds. They weren’t like any clouds I’d ever seen. Some glowed with color. Reds, greens, oranges, and yellows. Others were dark shadows. None were so thick that they blocked out the stars, yet they definitely had substance. I could see right through these translucent bodies that shot across the heavens impossibly fast. Many blazed with light, as if they were somehow charged with energy. It was a tightly choreographed fireworks display in the vast night sky.

  On ground level I felt as if I could see for miles, yet there was nothing to see. The landscape was made up of nothing but jagged gray rock. I saw peaks in the distance, chasms beneath them, miles of flat land in between. I thought of the lava field we once visited in Hawaii where the molten lava had spread and hardened, leaving a jagged world of gray. That’s pretty much what t
his was, multiplied by about a million. There were no buildings. No trees. No sign of civilization. We stood at the bottom of a mountain of rock that jutted up higher than I could see. There seemed to be levels everywhere. Were there caves built into this dark matter? Could people live on this rock?

  Dark matter. That’s what the flumes were supposed to have been made of. The oldest known substance in the universe. The gray rock that made up this strange world looked exactly like the rock from the flumes. Was there a connection?

  As much as this desolate world seemed dead, it wasn’t empty. This is hard to describe, but I’ll try. I sensed life. It’s not like I saw people crawling around on the various levels of rock. I didn’t. But I felt the presence of life. What I saw were shadows and light that moved quickly past on the edge of my vision. When I tried to look at them, they’d be gone. A few times I thought I actually saw the image of a person, but by the time I turned to focus… nothing. These maddening images danced beyond my ability to actually grasp them and understand what they were. Who they were. It seemed as if I were surrounded by ghosts.

  Oddly, I wasn’t scared. Confused maybe, but not scared.

  The only thing normal about this place was my family. Though seeing them standing in that desolate place was about as abnormal as I could imagine. Dad had on his usual dark green khakis and his favorite faded Villanova sweatshirt. Mom wore a jean skirt and a black turtleneck under a white sweater. I already said that Shannon had on jeans and a pink sweater. Marley wore his blue collar that was embroidered with fish shapes. They looked about as normal as I remembered them. They were a typical-looking family from Connecticut… standing together on Mars.

  They let me take in the surroundings without a word. I guess they were waiting for me to get used to the place. Yeah, right. Fat chance that would happen. After seeing all I thought there was to see, which wasn’t much, one question jumped out ahead of all the others.